title: Is nursing its own worst enemy?
abstract: In a thought-provoking interview, one nurse theorist poses a question related to nurses. She asks nurses to defend their profession as a profession rather than as a trade. This question should give rise to a resounding response that nursing is a professional discipline. Over the years many nurses have fought to be recognized as a profession by doing the real work of building a foundation to ensure nursing's future. Unfortunately, over the last few decades, the building of nursing science has taken a back seat to other concerns such as creating more layers of practice, continuing to confuse the public and our patients about who nurses really are and what nursing really does.
authors.affiliation: Lewis University, Chicago, IL 6656, USA. pmkarnick@aol.com
authors.forename: Paula M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Karnick
mesh_terms: D009736:Nursing Process
keywords: Fawcett; nursing discipline; nursing education; nursing practice